If you have a dog, you’ve learned to rely on your four-legged partner for company, friendship and loyalty. Whether a Mastiff or a Boston Terrier, you dog will do his or her best to alert you and protect you from whatever the dog considers dangerous. Provided you are worthy of the dog’s loyalty, you have a trusted friend that you want to keep healthy. Unfortunately, it’s sometimes hard to tell that your friend is healthy yet rather expensive to be running to a vet for a checkup every week.

Your dog can give you plenty of signs that something isn’t right if you have an idea of what to look for – and the ability to notice changes from one day to the next. Often when you see a dog every day, it’s just the same dog. If you see a dog once a month, you’ll notice that something has changed. It’s a difficult condition to eliminate but one can get better at really noticing things day to day. If you can do that, it means you’ll have a much better chance to then have a vet correct the problem instead of a grim diagnosis of an advanced disease.

Any odd change in behavior should be noted. A dog that’s completely housebroken and suddenly starts making messes – sometimes right in front of you – doesn’t mean the dog is mad at you. Rather, your dog is trying to let you know that something is wrong. Just as a bored dog will chew on furnishings, a sick dog will do something to try and announce that he or she isn’t well. Chewing on paws, excessive rubbing on the carpet, excessive scratching should all get your attention. Of course, you have to know your dog’s normal behavior to see anything different. If you don’t know your dog, then learn by spending whatever time it takes to understand your “person” with fur. Your dog is depending on you, it’s your responsibility to uphold that trust.